See my Vlog on this trip here

The annual Formula One shutdown is a two-week closure for all teams, where no work, regarding the cars, can be carried out. Currently I’m on a short-term contract at Haas F1 Team in Banbury, my home town.

It’s a shame to waste these two weeks lounging around at home as holiday is quite hard to take in F1, except for the odd day here and there. My choice this year was to go on a working ‘holiday’ in Spain.

I hadn’t messaged via Helpx, but Amanda is a host of Helpx and I am a Helper of Helpx, so to all intents and purposes, I was Helpxing. And to be clear, Helpxing isn’t really a holiday, it is a working holiday, where you need to put in work for your accommodation and food, or whatever deal the hosts are offering.

As usual I’d booked this trip late, only a week or so before flying. Not only does booking late mean the flights were expensive but being August, there’s the ‘school holiday premium’. The best I could afford was to get the 6am flight from Luton on Sunday the 5th of August to Malaga. Never again, if I can help it! It meant getting up at half one in the morning to be at Luton for 4am. Too bloody early!